The Abbeville press and banner. [volume] (Abbeville, S.C.) 1869-1924, 1887-05-25
BURIALS IN SPAIN.
STRANGE SCENES WITNESSED
IN SEVILLE CEMETERY.
Extraordinary Treatment Of Baby
Corpse - Scant Ceremonies at
Wife's ObsequieS-The Poor
Begging for Interment.

Funerals in Spain are conducted in q
manner which is in the highest degree
original, says letter from Seville. When
YOU die you are got rid of as soon as pos
sible. The Spaniards have the same hor-
ror of death surroundings as the Italians,
but they 60 great deal further. AS
quickly as possible-sometimcs within
an hour-the body is placed IN an elao,
crate coffin made of metal and painted
to initiate marble Some of these cas-.
kets are smothered in gilt ornaments OF
q most elaborate character. All sizes are
kept ready at the great funeral establish
ments. Coffins open lengthways. The
lid is on hinges and is locked with key.
The poorer people are buried in wooden
coffins, covered with various designs IN
colored ribbons. Children's collins are
made in white and blue, and are decorat-
ed like bon-bon box Cofins of this
description are sold almost everywhere IN
the South. You see them hanging up
outside the shops by dozens.
Invent over the premises OF one OF the
biggest undertaking concerns In SPAN;
It is a public company, and is called
"La Funeraria." I never saw such
magnifcence in my life. Some OF the
funeral cars are built i'll the style OF the
great gilt and glass cars which figure IN
a circus procession through country
town. The drivers and footmen are
dressed in gorgeous liverics that make
YOU blink to look at them. Some OF the
liveries that I was shown cost over 81 ,0OO
each. A grand firStclass funeral with a
retinue of footrncn and officials is a daz-
zling pageant.
AS rule the corpse, even when so
magnificently conducted to its last home,
is unattended by any relatives. Span
iards finish with their dead, as a rule,
when the church ceremony is over. Few
corpses are accompanied to the cemetery
except by the undertaker's men. But in
ordinary cases the coffin is placed in a
yellow, open car, and driven up to the
cemetery by gentleman in short jacket
and peaked cap. The driver smokes his
cigarette and cracks his whip as ne huns
his favorite tune. The ridiculous always
lives next door to the sublime. The gro
tesoue and the horrible are first cousins.
Twill describe two that witnessed In
one day at the great cemetery at Seville.
Four little barefootea boys arrived at the
cemetery gates. Between them they carry
q little blue and white coffin. They jog
along, chatting and laughing, up the
long avenue of trees. Presently they see
something which attracts their attention
"a bird in a tree. Down they drop the
coffin by the roadside, and they scamper
across the grass to the tree. They pick
up stones and begin to throw at the bird.
In the process they quarrel about some
thing, and two of the boys have a fight.
In the meantime the coffin lies In the
roadway. I walk up to it, and through
the glass let into the lid l see the dead
child's face. It has been dead perhaps
twelve hours, so the features are un-
changed, aud it appears to be calmly
sleeping. Several people pass me; no one
takes any notice of the coffin in the road.
One old gentleman nearly tumbles over
it, and swears. 1t is evidently nothing
unusual.
Presently these ragged boys, having ar.
ranged their little difference, return and
pick up the coffin. Two of them have
lighted cigarettes. They carry their bur
den right across the cemetery to little
house, where two or three men with
brass numbers on their caps are smoking
cigarettes. Here they show paper, and
one of the men, picking up spade, tell
the bows to follow him. Off they 20
Jogging the coffin now this way and now
that, and I follow them.
We come to long line of brick vaults.
Some are empty; some are filled up to
the top with what presume to be mould.
The grave digger turns over the loose
earth with a spade, and strikes coffin
here and there. 1t is too full. He
moves on to another bricked square,
pushes his spade in and says there is
room. He digs little hole and lays the
coffin flush with the top of the brick
work. Then he throws few spadefuls
of earth from a mound close by, and the
ceremony is over. There are thousands
of these bricked squares in the cemetery.
and each contains score of collins.
There is no stone on top only the loose
brown earth. Some of them are so full
that the earth has to be piled up to cover
the coffin, and thus the coffin is actually
above ground.
The next funeral arrived as I was leav-
ing the cemetery. A car, driven by a
man smoking cigarette, came up. 1t
was followed by cab, from which
alighted an old gentleman, also smoking
a cigarette. The car pulled up at the
gate of the depository" little house
In tho grounds arranged for the reception
of people who have died too late to be
buried that day. The guardian of the
house, cigarette in mouth, filings open the
doors, speaks to the gentleman, and then
calls for somebody to come. A man with
q cigarette in his mouth now approaches.
He and the car-driver lift out the coffin
and carry it into the house and lay it on
the trcstles. Then they light a candle
at the head and foot, and come out and
shut the door. Off drives the car, the man
lighting another cigarette, and the gen.
tleman to whom the corpse belongs
strolls across the cemetery with the
grave-digger to choose ''his place" The
grave-digger turns up little earth in
one brick square, and then in another.
"Too full" says the gentleman, putting
his cigarette. He goes from square to
square and pokes at the loose earth with
his cane. At last he settles on square
which is only half full. That will do, y
he SAYS, and then he turns to his cab and
drives away.
make inquiries of the keeper Of the
SIdon,e;torv - The body inside the cOf-